Scott had stabbed Wilson, his estranged wife, 11 times — including twice each in the face and back — leaving a bloody mess in the 33-year-old Clearwater woman’s home.

Angila Wilson

Scott took Wilson’s body and placed it on the floor in the bedroom she shared with her seven-year-old daughter, who was, by then, lying awake in bed.

Murphy said the girl looked down and was puzzled.

“She did not know why her mom was sleeping on the floor because she usually sleeps with her in bed,” Murphy said. “She heard her dad talking to her mom, but was unable to make out the words. She heard her dad laughing.”

Court heard Scott then rounded up his children and said they were leaving. As he ushered them out of the house, the daughter noticed the mess left behind by her mother’s violent murder.

“She saw red paint all over the walls, but did not see any paint can,” Murphy said, noting Scott told his three kids it was paint.

“The conversations Mr. Scott is having with his children, he’s cogent. When he’s asked about the blood, he says, ‘Oh, it’s paint.’”

On the phone with sister

Wilson was killed on April 20, 2014, at some point between 9:17 and 9:29 p.m., court heard. At 9:17 p.m., she was on the phone with Scott’s sister, talking about his erratic behaviour, when the phone went dead.

Murphy read a quote Scott’s sister said was the last thing she heard Wilson say during their phone conversation: “What are you doing here? I’m going to call the police.”

At 9:29 p.m., Scott was captured on surveillance video at a Clearwater liquor store buying a bottle of Fireball whiskey — the same item he purchased at the same store four hours earlier. The clerk at the store said Scott did not appear to be intoxicated, Murphy said, and noticed blood on his arms and fingers.

“Why would Mr. Scott go to the liquor store? He’d been in the liquor store earlier,” Murphy said. “There was really no reason for Mr. Scott to attend to buy Fireball whiskey. Crown theorizes this is a clumsy attempt by him to establish some kind of alibi.”

Turbulent relationship

Scott’s 10-year relationship with Wilson was a turbulent one, especially in the weeks and months leading up to her murder.

“It was a relationship, a life, built on a house of cards — some good times, some bad times, some long, long tales and some Fireball whiskey,” Murphy said.

Fireball was Scott’s drink of choice, Murphy said, and his drinking drove many of the problems he and Wilson had.

There had been breakups and reconciliations but, Murphy said, Wilson meant it when the couple split in early 2014. On March 7, 2014, Wilson signed a lease on the Clearwater home that would six weeks later be behind police tape. Scott did not take the breakup well.

“He was not accepting that his wife has moved on,” Murphy said, noting Scott’s text messages to Wilson painted such a picture.

Murphy read some of the messages in court. Wilson’s replies were cordial but firm.

“I do not want to hear that you love me anymore,” she texted him on March 29. “I want you to respect my wishes because I don’t feel the same way about you.”

Around the same time, Wilson talked to friends about her feeling that Scott was “keeping track” of her, court heard. He was. Murphy said Scott had a friend doing drive-by checks of Wilson’s new home, and asked others to do the same in vehicles she would not recognize.

Hallucinations of police

In early April, Scott began to spiral out of control. After using cocaine with friends at a party on April 5, Murphy said, he had hallucinations about a police tactical team surrounding his house and chasing him through the woods.

Three days later, he visited the Clearwater RCMP detachment to ask officers if the event had actually happened.

Angila Wilson, a nurse and a mother of three, was killed at her Clearwater home on April 20, 2014. Facebook photo.PROVINCE

On April 10, court heard, Wilson confronted Scott at his home after a friend told her she’d seen him speeding through a stop sign while on his way to pick up their children from school. Scott responded by throwing a 40-pound bag of rock salt through the windshield of her car, Murphy said. Wilson left with the kids and Scott cut his wrists.

Police found him drunk and with superficial wounds to his forearms in the basement of his home.

“He was cycling through his emotions and was very intoxicated,” reads a police report filed after the incident.

Scott was taken to Royal Inland Hospital and held overnight. He was released on April 11 after being interviewed by a psychiatrist. Following his release, Scott walked around downtown Kamloops, stopping at a store to buy Wilson a hat to give to her as a gift.

Murphy said Scott never intended to kill himself but feigned the attempt in an effort to keep police from investigating the rock-salt incident. The same day Scott was released, the Ministry of Children and Family Development became involved, getting to work setting up a “safety plan” for Wilson.

A day in a ‘safe house’

Wilson spent April 11 in an improvised “safe house” — a room at a Clearwater hotel. Police hid her vehicle so Scott could not find her.

Wilson did not like being in hiding, Murphy said, and left with her kids the following day, running into Scott outside a Clearwater grocery store.

“He comes up to the vehicle where the children are and she says, ‘You shouldn’t be here,’” Murphy said. “Then he says to Angila, ‘Hey, look, I got you a hat,’ and he gives her that present.”

Five days later, Wilson was in a Kamloops courtroom getting a protection order against Scott.

While she was in court, Scott was a few doors down at Royal Inland Hospital recovering from surgery on a broken arm he suffered in a bike crash. In hospital, Scott was held until he could be checked over by the same psychiatrist who released him the previous week. He was released again on April 17.

Murphy said Scott talked to the doctor about his hopes of reconciling with Wilson. In his notes, the psychiatrist said Scott did not present signs of being “psychotic, suicidal or homicidal.”

Protection order not served

April 18, 2014, was Good Friday. Wilson spent the day doing church activities and taking part in an Easter egg hunt.

The protection order, granted on April 16, had not yet been served on Scott. Murphy said staff at the Kamloops courthouse had not been able to fax a copy to Clearwater RCMP or get an original to Wilson.

“The circumstances may have been different had that order been served, but it had not,” she said.

Two days later, Wilson took her kids to Easter dinner at a friend’s house. While she was celebrating the holiday, Scott was sitting at a picnic table outside her empty house sending her text messages.

“I love you more than all the universe,” read one.

Scott left before Wilson and their children returned home. But he returned at 9:17 p.m., interrupting Wilson’s phone call with his sister.

“It appears Ms. Wilson died not very shortly, if not immediately, after Mr. Scott’s arrival at the residence,” Murphy said.

Blood on the door

Wilson’s friend phoned police the following day after noticing blood on the door of her home. Police found her body inside and zeroed in on Scott, surrounding his house with a tactical team — not unlike the hallucination that first landed him in Royal Inland Hospital.

The children were rescued by police. Court has heard no evidence that they were physically harmed.

After an hours-long standoff, during which time Scott would not answer the phone for a police negotiator, officers entered Scott’s home and found him lying in bed. He was arrested without incident and has been in custody since.

“The house of cards had, in essence, come to an end,” Murphy said.

‘Killed in her own home’

Scott pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, meaning he will automatically receive a life sentence. The hearing taking place this week is to determine how long he will spend behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.

Murphy is seeking a period of 14 to 15 years.

“Ms. Wilson was killed in her own home while her children were sleeping in their beds — and, if not sleeping, awake and observing what was happening,” she said, noting Scott left his children alone after the slaying to go to the liquor store.

“There is a form of abuse that occurred when the father left his kids at that crime scene.”

Defence lawyer Ian Donaldson has pitched a 10- to 12-year period of parole ineligibility.

Today, Wilson and Scott’s children are in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

They are undergoing counselling that, to this point, had been stunted because of the unknown outcome of the case against their father.

With the guilty plea, Murphy said, the children will now be able to receive full counselling. Until now, ministry counsellors had to be careful about how they discussed their family situation so as not to influence their potential testimony at their father’s trial.

A court battle is also underway between Wilson’s family and Scott’s sister. Both are seeking custody of the children.

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